US knows
China has been spying from Cuba for years
6/11/2023 7:23 am
The foreign minister dismissed reports that Cuba would accept the construction of a Chinese spy station in its own country as “false and unfounded.” Now it turns out that Chinese secret service agents have long been on site. With US knowledge.
According to a White House official, China has been operating an intelligence unit in Cuba for years. “This is well documented in intelligence records,” said the US official, who asked to remain anonymous. When US President Joe Biden took office, his services were informed about Beijing’s efforts to expand its infrastructure especially for espionage worldwide. The effort also included intelligence gathering facilities in Cuba. In 2019, the Chinese facilities there were expanded.
In the past few days, US media had reported that China and Cuba had signed a secret agreement to build a Chinese spy station in the Caribbean country. China wants to pay the communist-ruled island state several billion dollars for permission to build the station.
Cuba had vehemently denied these media reports. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio called the reports “false and unfounded”. The White House had previously described the reports as inaccurate.
China blames the United States
For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he was “unaware of the situation” but criticized the “spreading of rumors and slander” as a “common tactic” by the US.
The US official said Saturday Washington believes diplomatic efforts have slowed China’s development of intelligence capabilities in Cuba. “We believe the People’s Republic of China is not quite where it hoped to be,” the official said.
Relations between the US and China have been very tense for a long time. In February, the overflight of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States caused diplomatic upheaval, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned visit to Beijing. According to information from US government circles, Blinken is scheduled to make up for the trip on June 18.
Memories of the Cold War are awakened
The US shot down the balloon over the US east coast at the time, which in turn provoked angry reactions in Beijing. The United States sees the economically and militarily emerging China as the greatest geopolitical challenge in the world.
During the Cold War, the then Soviet Union maintained listening stations in Cuba to spy on the United States. When the Soviet Union stationed nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962, it led to one of the most dangerous crises of the Cold War. Moscow finally withdrew the medium-range missiles.